Last night J-man and I were doing the typical Romanian thing and having a drink in an Irish pub in downtown Brasov, Transylvania.

“Happy three month anniversary,” I said, raising my glass.

“Happy anniversary – we’ve been married for three months!” he replied, then quizically looked at the date on his watch.

Yup, it’s been three months since we got on a jetplane to Thailand. Here in freezing, beautiful, slightly scary Romania, it seems a century ago since we were sitting poolside, sipping cocktails and gorging on seafood banquets. With countless sleeper trains, overnight buses and bouts of explosive weebum now firmly under my (tightening) belt, I would like to share with you a list of things travel has taught me about myself.

A list of things travel has taught me about myself:

– I am not normal.

Most people do the thing where they check for their passport and tickets a couple of times and arrive at the airport/train station with a little time to spare. I feel like I have cooled out a lot since J-man scolded me for dragging him to the bus stop in Amsterdam about four hours before our overnight bus to Berlin was due to leave, but I am still a total freak when it comes to pre-travel preparation. Here’s a little checklist I go through the night before moving onto a new city:

Check for tickets

Check time on tickets

Ask J-man to set alarm

Pack bag

Check tickets are still in bag

Make sure J-man has set the alarm

Have clothes, shoes and handbag ready next to bed

Make sure J-man is asleep before I check the tickets again

Tiptoe over to J-man’s bed to check he has set the alarm

Lie awake wondering what it will be like if we miss the train and have to spend the rest of our lives in a place called Cluj

Freak out about whereabouts of passport and rustle around trying to find passport

Locate passport in the place I always keep it

Dream about missing train/bus

Wake up 15 minutes before alarm goes off in order to “clear the decks”, even if not necessasry, to avoid using train/bus toilets

Wake up long-suffering, easy-going husband and force feed him breakfast at dawn so we can make our 1pm train/bus.

– I can read maps.

I first realised this when J-man and I were in Amsterdam trying to hunt down the Red Light District. J-man, who at this point had christened himself “Papa Compass” thanks in part to the compass on his Jason Bourne-style watch, snatched the map from me and led the way. Into surburbia we went and, upon passing several families with small children, I told him I suspected we were going in the opposite direction. “Trust Papa Compass,” he said. So I let him go, until finally he relented and I – the ever faithful wife – took us directly to where the girls in red boxes were trying to sell sex to drunk Poms.

– I DO have a bladder of steel.

There was a time in my life where I would have to stop to wizz at least twice between Lucknow and Orange. I remember once being so scared to tell my parents I needed to wee during a trip to Tuckerbag, that I snuck off to a neighbouring vacant building, thinking its “To Let” sign said “toilet”. Things have since improved, but suddenly I am the girl who can wait until I GET TO A WHOLE NEW COUNTRY before I wee.

– I am not afraid of germs aka my immune system is awesome!

Sometimes you have to do gross stuff overseas. Sometimes there’re no soap, old-looking sheets, three days of the same socks, two days of the same underpants, sharing train compartments with sickly old people, trusting fellow-hostelers to wash their dishes properly, buying food from dirty-looking bakeries and touching money so brown cavemen probably used it to buy their fur loin cloths. All of this and I haven’t even had so much as caught a sniffle (knocking on closest wood). I rule!

Other things:

I am a massive baby and miss my family

I am a total cheapskate and will not hand over money for anything I do not have to (case in point, both the bras I packed have lost their underwire and my jeans shrunk to kid size in the wash. I scoff at suggestions of replacements)

I think I know how you feel – backpacking taught me so much about myself. After a few months I started to realise that I was actually fairly resilient and found some reserves of self-sufficiency that I didn’t know I had. Travel, as well as being eye-opening, really builds character.

I’m so glad you’re having a good time. I know what you mean about Romania seeming a little scary – I arrived by train in Bucharest after lovely, sunny Bulgaria, and was really intimidated by the grey, Soviet-era apartment buildings and packs of strays, but once I got out of the city, Romania really picked up for me. Braşov (and the rest of Transylvania) was wonderful, especially out in the countryside. The Saxon fortified church-towns are really worth checking out, if you’ve hired a car.

I think I watched the 2008 Champion’s League final in that Irish pub in the middle of Braşov, too.

Keep having fun. Do awesome things that you’ll never forget! Keep an eye out for Transylvanian bears, though…

All except the retelling of the red light district story. I knew we were heading in the wrong direction but I was trying to protect my young bride from discovering some of the horrible (awesome) things adults do to each other.